CAVALCANTI, BARTOLOMEO. - AN AMAZINGLY SUCCESSFUL RETORICA.

La Retorica. Divisa in sette libri: dove si contiene tutto quello, che appartiene all'arte Oratoria. Con la Tavola de i Capi principali. Contenuti nella presente Opera. All'illustrissimo, et reverendissimo sSignore, il cardinale di ferrara.

Venice, Gabriel Giolito de' Ferrari, 1559. Folio. Uncut in later (?) blank limp boards. A tear to middleof spine. Upper margins with brownspots, decreasing towards end. Large printer's woodcut-device at titlepage, 6 woodcut vignettes, 6 large woodcut initials. (12),563 pp. Wide-margined and printed on good paper. Apart from browning to upper margins, a clean copy.

There were printed 2 editions the same year, one in Venice (the item offered) and one in Pesaro.

Cavalcanti (1503-62) was a Florentine scholar-diplomat who served the Republic (1527-30), went into exile (1537), and spent his remaining years working for the Este and Farnese families. He died in poverty in Padua . His works reflect his interest in politics and scholarship: an oration to the Florentine militia (1530), political memoranda, diplomatic letters, translations from Polybius, essays on classical political thought (1571), and an amazingly successful Retorica (ten editions from 1559 to1585). The last, a comprehensive compendium of classical rhetoric written in Italian with Italian examples, maintains that the function of rhetoric is civic and practical rather than literary.

Adams C 1175 (but with the wrong year).

Order-nr.: 48417